> It's been seemingly impossible to motivate the world to switch to alternatives to fuel.

The impossible part is we have yet to discover a density/cost comparison to hydrocarbons.

No one is going to “switch” to something that isn’t as good as the existing option. Couple this with “but electric cars!” that often are still just coal powered.

Plastics, military, actual logistics, China, we’re going to burn every drop of oil. We all better hope someone is working on sequestering options!